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I am supposed to be studying for my linear algebra exam tomorrow at the moment. If you are reading this, you can obviously tell that I am not, in fact, studying, but writing a blog post. Much better use of my time, don't you think?

Good news for a special friend in Arizona! I finished her moomoo:She needs it so badly, because her anxiety and depression are really getting to her. I can only hope that this adorable, turquoise moomoo cheers her up and alleviates her pain for at least a little while. I really wish I could be there with her, but it just isn't possible. I really hope she is, if slowly, getting better, because she really needs it.

You know what was extremely frustrating and sad a few days ago? Well, I was on the bus to lab at the marine campus, and was planning on finishing Kevät, my first prayer shawl for quidditch in the HPKCHC. I only had about four more pattern repeats to go (two repeats is one center diamond). So, I reach into my bag and pull out my shawl, noticing that one of the needles had "screwed off" (yay interchangeable needles...). So I pick up the point from the bottom of the bad, and to my horror, discover that it hadn't screwed off, it had broken off with the little screw part with the threads from the cable stuck inside! Not only could I not finish my shawl on the bus (or back at the dorm for that matter), but I now have to wait 4-6 weeks for the replacement cable and needle tips to come in! So Kevät is currently sitting on a looong piece of waste yarn, waiting for my shipment of replacement parts.

Luckily I was using two joined cables, so one of them was fine. The other shawls I was planning on knitting used a different size cable, so I rescued the living cable from Kevät and cast on Arrowhead. I'm only one repeat in and it is looking gorgeous. Luckily, someone from the Hufflepuff Common Room is sending me another cable, so I can hopefully finish this shawl, and others, while my points and other cable ship.

Other than that, I've made some awesome progress on my OWL: I'm a mono-knitter (aka I can only really focus on one project at a time), so I was having trouble getting around to knit it. Yesterday I divided up the week so I have OWL knitting days and days for everything else, so hopefully now I'll get some real progress in :) I'm about 1/6 of the way into it, not including blocking and weaving in ends, and I'm still on my first bobbins. I'm going to have a ton of leftover yarn from this, but I don't mind since I'll have yarn in all the colors of the rainbow! That's all, for now. ;)

It may seem like I haven't written in forever, and you would be right in making that assumption! My knitting pace has slowed down considerable, mainly due to the fact that I don't have endless hours to sit around, watch TV, and knit like I did during the summer (best summer ever BTW). I do have time to get projects done here and there though, mainly at work. I work at the info desk in the University Center, and there is always one day I work when it's too busy to just do my homework, yet not busy enough that I'm constantly running around. Those days I bring my knitting. I can get a few rows/rounds in, put it down, and then when I'm free again, come back to it. This means, of course, no fancy intarsia, fair isle, or lace work will be brought to work, as that requires more serious concentration (which spells trouble for my rainbow scarf, as I can't really take it out of my dorm room due to the amount of bobbins, and all my knitting time seems to be outside the dorm). Here are a few things I've accomplished though:

A single (that's right, single) cable-lace short fingerless glove (the pattern can be found here). I had knit the first one from the original pattern for Catie, but they didn't have a thumb gusset for some reason, so I didn't bother with the second. Catie, however, still like the glove (it fit her hand a little better than mine), and took it to college with her, and I promised I'd knit her a second. So I redesigned the pattern, giving it a thumb gusset and making it a little more DPN friendly, knit the second glove (which I think turned out nicer than the first), and sent it off to her. She hasn't written me yet, so I don't know if she got it. I would think she did, and people just procrastinate writing letters back (I know I do). Plus, it took at least two weeks from when I sent a package to another friend to get her thank-you letter back, and it hasn't been two weeks yet.

It's a Utopia Hat! Except it's knit in Red Heart Super Saver Mexicana (aka rainbow), so you can't really see the cables that well. I knit it for potions homework for the Harry Potter Knit & Crochet House Cup on ravelry, but I didn't know who I'd give it to (goodness know I have too many hats already). Fortunately, my new friend Joshua (who is very into the whole gay-rights thing :D) wanted it when he first saw me knitting the first few rows of ribbing (best part is - he knits too!). So he's happy with his rainbow hat :)

Exciting venture for me: my first pair of toe-up socks! I'm now a total toe-up convert: they fit so much better than cuff-down!, and are fairly simply to make (best part: I don't have to carry around a ruler to make heel and foot-length measurements). I was originally steered to make these because I was going to make a pair of wavy socks using a lacy pattern I found for Charms. Unfortunately, the pattern didn't work backwards, as I would have needed for cuff-down, so I learned how to knit toe-up. I'm not going to knit those socks anymore (for charms, anyway), but now I have a nice new pair of purple socks!

Last, but not least, this little guy. Yes, another Hugo. You see, Joshua's birthday was Sunday, and I'm in college, so I wasn't about to go buy him anything. Since he enjoyed the hat so much, I decided to make him a Hugo out of the scraps (I ran out of yarn just as I finished the first foot, so the second foot is green). Even better, this also doubled as DADA homework :)

As for stuff I'm working on right now, I've made some progress on my rainbow scarf (it's 16cm long, so I'm 8% done!), but that's suffering because I can't really take it anywhere due to the massive amount of bobbins. More critical than the scarf is a moo moo I'm making for Sam. She needs it badly, because she's been having some bad episodes of anxiety and depression. I've filled my queue with a bunch of moomoo-related items to send off to her in Arizona. I've also started on my quidditch prayer shawls. I've never made shawls before, and I'm wondering how I'm going to block them (and they will need blocking bad, I can already tell). We do have a carpet in the room I can block it on, though then it will be in the middle of the floor. Perhaps my bed? Then comes the problem that I don't have any pins or blocking wire (never blocked before)...

That's about it. In all: expect less frequent posts, because, as a college student, I won't have that much time to post, and I'll have less to post about. I bid you adieu! (for now)